Although it makes perfectly logical sense—as I always say, accessibility has a omnipotent presence in the everyday lives of disabled people—to cover companies like GE Appliances and Whirlpool when reporting on technology, I would’ve died of laughter in 2013 if a time-traveler from the future came back to tell me I’d be writing about household appliances in 2024. It is technology and it is important to be accessible to disabled people—the thing is, it isn’t nearly as headline-grabbing or sexy as, say, the things I built my career on writing about iPhones and iPads and AirPods. Accessibility truly does manifest itself everywhere.
I thought about this juxtaposition a lot a couple of months ago when I sat down virtually with Whirlpool’s Rob Moser and Katie Frayer to discuss the company’s philosophy on accessibility and how it thinks about building inclusively-designed products like washing machines, refrigerators, stoves, and more. Moser, Whirlpool’s head of design, along with engineer Frayer, both explained the essence of the company’s outlook on building quality products that emphasize equality vis-a-vis accessibility is, in a word, humanness. As Moser told me, his team constantly is doing user-centric research inside people’s homes, attempting to better understand what potential customers may need or want with a certain product. In a disability context, this sort of “in the trenches” research can oftentimes prove immeasurably more valuable because a disabled person often needs a particular set of ostensibly arcane features in order to access a device. To that end, Frayer told me a quarter of the American populace identifies with some sort of disability; as such, it isn’t prudent—whether business-wise or morally—to ignore such a large proportion of customers. Whirlpool’s aspiration, according to Frayer, is to “make appliances for everybody’s homes,” the implication being disabled people are included. Every technology company, consumer or not, boasts about making something “for everyone,” but there are precious few who actually take the all-encompassing term to heart when it comes to working on accessibility.
“[Accessibility] is important because that’s the majority of our consumer: people that have unique needs,” Moser said of why Whirlpool cares so much. “We’re trying to create a systemic and foundational way of understanding the broad spectrum of needs of our consumer and ensuring our portfolio can serve as many of them as possible.”
Moser told me Whirlpool’s aforementioned home observation component is of crucial import to its work. He said the process not only allows the company to see its products’ myriad capabilities in real-world scenarios, it allows them to grasp the “needs and lifestyles of our consumer.” Such a perspective plays an integral role in helping Whirlpool “map [our findings]” to its product offerings so as to pinpoint where the company can iterate and improve on. At this point, Moser said, is where “we go into and begin feature innovations” for products.
Whirlpool’s mission is deeply resonant to Frayer, as she’s a lifelong disabled person who’s used a wheelchair for most of her life; she got her first when she was 4 years old. Her lived experience means ascribing to the idea that she “try to adapt my life [knowing] what it’s like to be disabled and adapt the world so that it works for me.” Having access to reliably accessible appliances is part of said adaptation for Frayer. She explained Whirlpool supports her well on the job too, saying the company has an employee resource group, or ERG, for disabled workers like herself. The group runs what she called a “really cool” immersion workshop wherein Whirlpool’s disabled contingent try to expose leadership to an approximate sense of what it’s truly like to cope with a disability, be it visible or invisible. Externally, Moser told me Whirlpool has established some partnership with disability-centric organizations like the United Spinal Association. The conceit there, he said, is the company feels like it’s important to engage with the disability community and have an open dialogue with them so they can take their insight and feedback and apply it during design sessions. The company has even go so far as to tote prototypes into hospitals and ask patients of they can use one thing or another. Moser said Whirlpool’s ethos involves a three-step strategy: identifying a problem, creating a solution to said problem, and convincing people internally that the work is worthwhile.
Getting leadership on board is perhaps the most crucial aspect, as Moser told me it takes a lot of time and effort to educate people in power on why investing in accessibility and more diverse products is a good thing. To paraphrase Apple CEO Tim Cook, it’s imperative to be able to see beyond the “bloody ROI.” Knobs on stoves and the like always include tactile indicators. There are accommodations for colorblindness. There are even Braille stickers for Blind and low vision people to affix to their product’s various knobs and switches. These all are features meant to enrich the user experience such that disabled people thrive on the daily.
“At the end of the day, we’re working to make our products user-friendly for everyone,” Moser said.
Frayer concurred. “We want to improve life in every home,” she said.
On that note, Moser said Whirlpool doesn’t consider itself merely a legacy appliances business. Rather, the company fancies itself makers of tools that engender independence and self-confidence that one can be self-sufficient in taking care of themself. Moser said Whirlpool aspires to “bring that ability to as many people as humanly possible.” In terms of customer feedback, he said the company is prideful when people from historically underserved communities like the disability community express excitement for how its stove or washing machine or whatever has helped propel them towards greater agency and autonomy in life.
Something Frayer was keen to talk about was the company’s RotoRack dishwasher, Scheduled for release “later this year,” Frayer explained the technology grew out of an internal design competition back in September 2022. The appliance’s rack works like the lazy Susans commonly found on tables in traditional dim-sum restaurants whereby it spins around. This means, for wheelchair users like Frayer, she can park herself in one spot and can reach the entire rack because it moves. It’s emblematic of why Frayer (and her teammates) are such staunch advocates for prioritizing accessibility. “We want to be able to reach our dishes without having to close the door, move around, and do all these things to use our dishwasher,” Frayer said of the RotoRack’s design.
Looking towards the future, both Moser and Frayer told me the company is committed to continue on its work empowering people. Moser said there’s “growing momentum” inside the organization to be even better in this regard, telling me accessibility has been part of Whirlpool “for a very long time.” For Frayer, she told me she’s “super excited” for Whirlpool’s future in accessibility, especially considering accessibility typically is an afterthought at most places. The work she and team are doing isn’t technology for technology’s sake; it’s “making an impact on how people live.” The ramifications of that are immense and go beyond being nerdy.
“We’re seeing growing interest and intensity around this kind of [accessibility] work,” Moser said of Whirlpool’s future. “I love what we’re doing. We’re going to be able to bring our products and independence and comfort to more people. I love what the future looks like for us.”